My mind loves to spin tangents and as I was thinking about colors it somehow got fused with time - past, present, and future? What colors would best suit these concepts?
The past is definitely red. The past is a double edged sword that cuts deep. That's why it's red. The accumulated baggage of missed goals and bad decisions can weigh you down and root you in the past. It can prevent you from growing and gaining momentum. The other side of the edge is reliving your glory points. "I was so much stronger last week/month/year. I suck now..." Yet another doorway to negativity. The past can be used in a positive way - identify the problems, plan the solutions, execute the solutions. But it's very easy to slide in to the trap and often difficult to claw your way out.
The present for me is green. This is where I try to keep my focus placed. What am I doing now? How am I doing now? Keeping my focus rooted in the present keeps me from being distracted from what I should have done or what I will be doing. It helps me to sink in and enjoy what I'm doing. It helps me stay alive. And life is often green. Green is good.
The future for me is yellow. While it's important to focus on the present, you gotta know where you're going and have a plan to get there - at least the OCD type A part of me needs to. However there is a little danger in focusing on the future and that's why it's yellow for me. Stressing over goals set to high, the weather for this weekends race, and a million other things wastes energy that is better focused on the present. Goals are good, flexibility is better. Flexible decisions are made in the present stream - yet another reason to swim there. Note that flexibility does not imply compromise. Compromise is often giving up where flexibility is going around.
Workout Summary
In case you haven't guessed today was interval day! It was a good day for intervals as I felt strong and had good energy.
Swim set felt good - my intervals are more muscular endurance than aerobic endurance intervals, alternating between 20 hard freestyle and 20 easy freestyle or breast. For the easy laps I focus on form and being quiet in the water. The hard laps are balls-out there's a shark chasing me type efforts.
For spin I did my own thing since the "official" ride was an Z2/Z3 distance ride. Once again I was the nut in the first row who stands and sprints when the rest of the class is on a seated climb and does one legged drills while the rest of the class is recovering. Oh well, it's all about me so tough.
Still didn't get out and get new shoes yet so my run form still feels a bit funky, though the extended intervals felt strong and fast. I have a playlist that alternates between 80 BPM songs and 90 BPM songs. I match my run cadence to the BPM of the songs so my hard intervals tend to go on for about 4-6 minutes. I was able to hold a 6:30 pace for the hard intervals which for me is very fast. On the easy songs I backed it off to an 9:00 pace - much more reasonable for me.
Only got dive bombed by one bird today. Things are looking up!
May be my last post until Monday - leaving tomorrow for TOMRV (200 mile bike ride in Iowa) this weekend. Weather outlook is cold and rainy. Great.
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